‘Michael’ Skips the Controversy as It Charts the Rise of a Singular Pop Star

April 22, 2026

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And Shamone to you too (PHOTO CREDIT: Glen Wilson)

Starring: Jaafar Jackson, Colman Domingo, Nia Long, Juliano Krue Valdi, Laura Harrier, Miles Teller, KeiLyn Durrel Jones, Jamal R. Henderson, Tre Horton, Rhyan Hill, Joseph David-Jones, Jessica Sula

Director: Antoine Fuqua

Running Time: 118 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Mild Language and A Troublesome Father-Son Relationship

Release Date: April 24, 2026 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: In the late 1960s, the Jackson 5 were on the verge of emerging from the supposed nowheresville Gary, Indiana into the most rarefied echelons of music superstardom. The biopic Michael starts at this inflection point, with youngest Jackson brother Michael (played as a boy by Juliano Krue Valdi) as the undeniable, precocious phenomenon. It then jumps ahead about ten years (with Jaafar Jackson taking over the title role), as Michael ventures forth into what would almost immediately prove to be one of the most successful solo musical careers of all time. Through it all, he attempts to escape the grasp of his overbearing father manager Joe (thoroughly embodied by Colman Domingo) and live to the fullest the eccentrically creative life that the rest of the world could never fully understand.

What Made an Impression?: What Do We Do with the Rest?: Michael keeps its focus limited to about a 20-year window, a style of compression that is generally a sensible idea for biopics. (Although an even shorter timeframe might have been advisable.) But in the case of Michael Jackson, this decision cannot help but amplify what is left out, namely: the bizarre lifestyle choices that made him the subject of ridicule, the allegations that he was a perpetrator of child sexual abuse, and the controversies surrounding his untimely death. The darkness isn’t completely hidden, but nothing ever emerges in this telling that would make Michael anything other than an angel on Earth. Now, is there even a way to make a movie about him that thoughtfully examines both the positives and negatives of his legacy? I’m not sure, and I don’t know if anyone is even asking for that anyway. But even if it makes sense from a storytelling perspective to leave off certain elements of a subject’s life, you can’t change what’s already come to light.
Moonwalking Down the Middle: If you can personally get past the most discomfiting aspects of Jackson’s legacy (or hold opposing viewpoints in your head simultaneously), does Michael offer significant enough entertainment value to be worthwhile? Well, Jaafar Jackson (one of Michael’s real-life nephews) does deliver a remarkable simulacrum of his uncle’s entire being. It’s impressive, and also a little uncanny. Besides that, though, there’s not a whole lot here that’ll likely blow anyone away. Screenwriter John Logan and director Antoine Fuqua pretty much deliver all the typical biopic beats that’ll make you go, “Yeah, I thought you’d do that.” MJ’s story is compelling enough that a few exciting sequences are inevitable, but overall this is nothing to shout “Shamone!” about.
Familiar Faces?: So my general reaction to Michael was pretty dang similar to that of the thoroughly whelming Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, all the way down to a cameo from a certain fellow that made me go, “Hey wait a minute, that’s … What’s he doing here?!” (I’ll protect the surprise, but you can easily look up who I’m referring to if you can’t wait to find out.) It’s a little slice of perfection in an otherwise mostly flavor-free concoction. There’s a similar moment when a certain comedian of note plays a certain sports promoter of note. I have no idea if the real versions of those moments actually played out like they do here, but I’m not demanding verisimilitude in those instances.

Michael is Recommended If You: Just want to see someone do a really good impression of his famous family member

Grade: 2 out of 5 Shamones

This Is a Movie Review: Split

January 21, 2017

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split-james-mcavoy

Split is basically M. Night Shyamalan’s version of an X-Men movie. Kevin (James McAvoy), with his 23 personalities (X-23?), is like Legion crossed with Wolverine, and “the Beast” is about to emerge. And let’s throw some Professor X in for good measure, since McAvoy plays both after all. (BTW, Legion is Prof. X’s son.)

The last X-Men film, Apocalypse, was not that well-received, but I liked it a lot, and the similarities are instructive. Just as that mutant film was, for better or worse, unapologetically over-the-top, so is Split relentlessly blunt with its dialogue. Sometimes that means characters thuddingly explain exactly what is happening and exactly how they are feeling, and we say, “Nobody talks like that.” But then, that is also the appeal. Kevin talks and acts like nobody else, and that is what makes him so spellbinding.

There is a series of flashbacks from the childhood of the main kidnapping victim (Anya Taylor-Joy, always a wonder to behold), which is largely unnecessary. The point they make is demonstrated more subtly and just as effectively towards the end, but they are compelling and in keeping with the unsettling tone.

Yeah, there’s a twist (or two). There are hints that we should have seen all along, but also plenty of misdirection, so it works, beyond all odds and all sense.

And for my Early 2017 Oscar Wish List, I of course like McAvoy for Lead Actor, Mike Gioulakis for his expressionistic Cinematography, are opening and closing credits considered part of Production Design?, and Shyamalan himself for Supporting Actor in the best one-scene performance I have seen in some time.

I give Split 20 out of 24 Personalities.